Palampur, July 17
Major Vijay Singh Mankotia, suspended Congress MLA from Kangra, today announced to join the BSP along with Congress leaders Kewal Singh Pathania and Vijay Joshi. Their formal induction into the BSP would, however, be on July 26 in the presence of UP Chief Minister and BSP supreme Mayawati at Dharamsala.

Addressing a conference at Dharamsala this afternoon, he said Mayawati would come to Dharamsala on July 26 to address BSP workers in view of forthcoming Assembly elections in the state. Further course of action would be chalked out on that day, he added.

He appealed to all Congress leaders who had been sidelined by Virbhadra Singh to join the BSP. He specifically asked Sukh Ram, Vidya Stokes, Raj Krishan Gaur and other Congress MLAs to join hands with the BSP, as the Congress had no future in the state.

He claimed the BSP would emerge as the third front in the state and would play a significant role in the formation of the new government.

Referring to the alleged discrimination being met out to residents of the lower areas of the state, he said despite assurances from the state government, nothing had been done for the residents of these areas and they continued to suffer and face discrimination in the field of employment, development, key postings and other state government and Union Government-funded projects.

He said he was silent for the past few months and was expecting that the state government would initiate appropriate steps to remove regional imbalance, but nothing had been done. He said the Chief Minister had announced that a special financial package would be released for Kangra, but it remained confined to government files only. Another commitment of the Chief Minister for issuing a white paper on the development in Kangra was also not fulfilled.

He said it was a matter of concern that bureaucrats from a particular region occupied all key posts in the state secretariat and bureaucrats from other regions, particularly from lower areas, had been sidelined. Recent postings of DCs had also proved that the Chief Minister had no liking for HAS or IAS officers from lower areas. He quoted the names of a number of bureaucrats belonging to Kangra, Hamirpur, Una, Chamba and Mandi districts who had been given “unimportant” and “non-significant” postings after when the Congress came to power. He said these were few instances of regional imbalance.

Shimla, July 17
Following the failure of the government in submitting the development plan for a Greater Kasauli area, the High Court today ordered to maintain status quo with regard to construction in Kasauli till the next date of hearing.

The state government has sought six-months more time to prepare the development plan for the Greater Kasauli area. A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice V.K. Gupta and Mr Justice Sanjay Karol directed that till the next hearing of the court in mid-October, all construction activity on projects above Rs 25 lakh should be stopped.

The Bench further directed the DC, Solan, to ensure that during this period, construction on the project should be stopped completely. However, the Bench allowed interveners before the court to plead their case before the secretary, Town and Country Planning Department, with regard to approved projects.

The court passed this order on a PIL filed by Baljeet Malik, an Environmentalist, who heads the “Kasauli Bachao Andolan”.

Shimla, July 17
In order to deal with the issue of allowing construction activity on land demarcated as ‘nakabil jungle jhari’ within the Nahan planning area, the government has constituted a committee which will ensure that the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, is not violated.

All construction cases on land classified as ‘nakabil jungle jhari’ within the Nahan planning area would be considered by the committee to ensure that these structures do not come up on land categorised as ‘forest land’.

The committee headed by the DC has been constituted only in Sirmaur. The notification for constituting the committee in Nahan Planning area was issued on July 12.

Interestingly, earlier the government had been granting permission for construction on land demarcated as ‘nakabil jungle jhari’ but it was felt that the matter should be examined in detail so that there was no violation of the Forest Conservation Act.

A large number of cases seeking permission for undertaking construction had been pending.

The government got the case examined in detail by the Revenue and Law Department to ensure that granting permission for construction would not violate the provisions of the Forest Conservation Act. The secretary, Revenue, observed that if there were trees, shrubs and vegetation intermingled with pastures then it would attract the provisions of the Forest Conservation Act.

It was after examining the issue in detail that the government decided to constitute a committee which would be empowered to take a final decision on such cases. The other members of the committee include the DFO, tehsildar, executive officer or secretary of the concerned MC, pradhan of the gram panchayat where the area falls.

The Town and Country Planner, Nahan, would be the member secretary of the committee.

All cases of construction would be put up before the committee, which will decide and dispose off the cases after ensuring that the structure is not being raised on land which can fall in the category of forest land.

The Law Department had observed that the expression ‘forest land’ had not been defined either in the Indian Forest Act, 1927, or in the Forest Conservation Act, 1980.

They also observed that since the meaning of the word ‘forest’ assigned by the Supreme Court indicated that ‘nakabil jangal jhari’ cannot be treated as ‘forest land’, so planning permission could be given on such land.

Shimla, July 17
Governor V.S. Kokje today issued an ordinance to enforce the new Police Act in the state replacing the over century-old Punjab Police Act.

The ordinance would be replaced by the draft Bill in the forthcoming monsoon session of the Assembly, sources said.

The Bill approved recently by the state Cabinet has been prepared on the basis of the Model Police Act circulated by the Government of India. However, the state government had carried out some alterations keeping in view the geographical condition of the state.

The Police Act of 1860 was enforced when the state of Himachal Pradesh did not exist. — PTI

Shimla, July 17
The Himachal Pradesh High Court today issued notices to the Election Commission and the state government on the issue of conducting Assembly elections in the three tribal constituencies of Himachal Pradesh simultaneously with the rest 65 seats.

A Division Bench directed the respondents to explain their stand before the court on or before August 9.

The court passed this order on a petition filed by the three legislators who opposed the delinking of the three constituencies from the rest 65 seats for the conduct of poll in winter, on the plea that the areas would be covered by snow. 

Mandi, July 17
Additional chief secretary Avay Shukla, who also heads the Tourism Department, today directed the deputy commissioners of Mandi and Bilaspur districts to expedite various tourism projects and achieve all targets by December 31.

He said the DCs would review progress on the projects every month so that these were completed by December 31.

Shukla said the Central Government had allotted Rs 8 crore for development of infrastructure in the Mandi-Bilaspur tourist. “All works are going on satisfactorily in the districts,” he added.

Mandi DC Subhasish Panda said projects worth Rs 1 crore were started in Mandi district, including the construction of a Rs 22-lakh rest house at Prashar Lake, Rs 13-lakh trekkers’ huts at Barot, trekkers’ route from Rowanda to Kamrunag and construction of toilets, rain shelters, iron benches, beautification of Trilokinath temple and other tourist spots in the district. “These works were almost complete and other projects worth Rs 1.75 crore in progress in the district,” he added. He said Rs 21 lakh was given for tarring of the Katola-Prashar road out of which Rs 15 lakh had been spent.

DC Bilaspur Rajinder Thakur said the district administration had got Rs 75 lakh for construction of toilets, cleanliness, treks and other facilities out of which Rs 64 lakh had been utilised. “Rs 1.5 crore has been allotted for the development of a lake in the town,” he added.

The meeting was attended by tourism director Subhash Ahluwalia, DCs and other district and HPTDC officials.

Meanwhile, additional chief secretary Avay Shukla said trekkers’ hostel built at a cost of Rs 38 lakh at Janjheli in Mandi would be allotted to a private hotelier soon. “We have received bids quoting Rs 8,000 per month, which is low. But we will allot the hostel to a private party from Himachal soon.”

Bilaspur, July 17
The government would spend Rs 34.50 lakh on three-year "Harit Bilaspur" campaign. As many as 3.30 lakh saplings would be planted during the current financial year.

Inaugurating the campaign at Ladaghat, 45 km from here, this afternoon, Himachal forests, youth services and sports minister Ramlal Thakur said that under this campaign the Forest Department would provide plants to farmers for plantation in their land. Every year a team of experts would assess the survival rate of these plants and those with excellent success rate would be awarded by the government.

The minister said about 12,000 farmers would be involved in this campaign, besides panchayats, mahila mandals, yuvak mandals and even school and college students.

As many as 77 farmers came forward to join this campaign on the spot and were given 5,000 saplings.

Nurpur, July 17
The Himachal Pradesh Unemployed Ayurvedic Doctors Association has alleged that ayurveda was being meted out step-motherly treatment by the government.

In a statement issued here president of the association Sanjiv Guleria lamented that the government was not serious about appointing ayurvedic doctors who had been interviewed against sanctioned vacant posts.

He claimed that though ayurvedic doctors were rendering service in the remote and hard areas the state Ayurveda Department was indifferent in adhering to the directions of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh issued in their favour.

He rued that the Virbhadra Singh government had approved 85 posts of ayurvedic doctors in its first Budget presented in March, 2003, but these could not be filled in four years. In the 2007-2008 Budget these 85 posts were again given approval. 

Kumarhatti, July 17
Hundreds of villagers from various panchayats falling under Nalagarh subdivision blocked traffic at Nalagarh today. They were protesting against the non-filling of over 12 teachers’ posts in Government Senior Secondary School, Mitiyan.

President of Mitiyan panchayat Sunita Devi and president of PTA of the school Man Singh said they had to take this decision after the government ignored their repeated pleas. Later, the villagers handed over a memorandum for being forwarded to the government. — OC